Mike Page

That's Gen. Day and I looked up his awards on the net and they were described as BSM with V and two OLC's and a BSM for merit. Maybe he seems to think you can separate the two, (but with his status who's going to tell him otherwise!). It is possible to wear a second ribbon, at least in the army, if you have 10 awards (as did Hackworth with ten Silver Stars). Army regs state that you can't wear more than four OLC's on your ribbon; therefore you wear a second ribbon.

I just checked The Call of Duty which states that the current gold medals are 99.9% gold, but check out this thread: they discuss the metal content. http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/sho...307#post1538307

They've been plated for a while. I think the criteria's still the same.

No offense but I don't see a situation where a PUC would be awarded in peace time or for a non-combat role. Wouldn't their Unit Commendation or Outstanding Unit Award be enough?

The MacArthurs were awarded one each. Who's Burress? Couldn't find him in the list of recipients.

Well I know his father received it. Maybe that's what was meant.

Actually, those are the MOH's. The one you're speaking of is the Brevet Medal. It's red with white stars. Confusing, isn't it?

While in the local "vintage" store I ran across a USAF BDU with E-9 stripes on it. I've seen E-8 a couple times but never Chief Master Sgt. I'm wondering if other forum members ever encounter this rank and what the collectability is; I read that only 1% of the air force enlisted personnel are allotted this rank. Thoughts? EDIT: Stripes are without the diamond.

I noticed on this old thread that the conversation started to veer from the original topic once the American posters started making some valid points. As someone else here correctly pointed out, there was a short period where the VC was awarded in "peace time". While this was also once true of the two respective US services' MOHs (mainly the Navy) it is not any more. Truth be told, you cannot compare the two medals based upon the number awarded; this is just common sense since the US is a much larger country. Two wars, the Civil War and Vietnam (where Britain was not present), had well over a million people wear the uniform. And I'm not even counting the Indian Wars or Cuba and the Philippines. Something like 78% of the Korean War MOH's were posthumous. Over half the Vietnam MOH's were posthumous. I've also read the citations for the very early Victorian-era VC's and they're not substantially different from their contemporary MOH citations. There's no difference. As for the price discrepancy, that's in part because it is illegal to sell or trade the MOH in the states. You must understand that many of the medals sold in Great Britain, as far as I have seen ARE CURRENT MANUFACTURE AND NEVER AWARDED. They were a part of the lot of HLI Lordship medals that were sold out the back door of that manufacturer's business and some made their way to Europe. Nobody in the UK understands this. Imagine for a moment if it was illegal to sell VC's, and the official government manufacturer pawned off a large number of current strikes. Would you pay 180,000 pounds? No. Just like anything else, if it's "hot" it's going to go for much less on the street. Especially if the medal's basically some current issue. All the VC's in existence are medals that were actually awarded. Getting back to the price disparity, aside from the point I just made, is that the British will always be the stylish, witty, funny people and we Yanks will always be regarded as a bunch of louts. The Brits have this romantic history what with the Charge of the Light Brigade and the Battle of Britain and the SAS and putting DSO or MC after your name all the rest of it. That's why the VC has that mystique about it. That's why its value has been over-inlated beyond what it probably should be. It's a prestigious award given to brave men but it has a sort of cult status in regards collectors.

I see that this is an old thread, but anyway I immediately recognized this officer as General Summerall. http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/cg&csa/Summerall-CP.htm